However, head coach Alan Stubbs is keen to reward some of those who have performed well this season with longer-term deals, whilst also making sure the club are able to secure the services of their main assets.

Stubbs declined to discuss individual situations, but the Evening News understands that talisman Scott Allan and vice-captain David Gray – whose current deals both run for another 18 months – are among those the club would like to get tied up on extended contracts. “We’re actively having discussions as we speak and we’re hopeful we can get things done over the next few weeks with certain individuals,” said Stubbs.

“I think we’ve been very fair with all the players here. If players perform well, we’ll reward them. We want players that are prepared to go the extra mile and look to perform consistently well.

“If players come here with something to prove, they’ll have a platform to do that and we’ll always look to reward them. It’s not just a one-way situation where we’ll just get what we can out of the players and then they’ll be away; if they do well, I’ll be the first to pull them into my office and say ‘listen, you’ve done great recently, what about this?’ I want to be offering all my players here new contracts because that’ll mean we’re doing well. Hopefully we’ll have something to report in the not-too-distant future.”

Meanwhile, Stubbs has urged his side to be wary of an Alloa team who have made life difficult for the “big three” of the Championship this season. The Wasps visit Easter Road today, ten days after beating Rangers at Recreation Park in the Petrofac Cup semi-final.

“You only have to look at the results over the last few weeks concerning ourselves and Alloa to see that if we haven’t got at least eight or nine on our game, we’ll struggle,” he said.